Beef plant TIF debated

Opponents, supporters face off during meeting

Opponents, supporters face off during meeting

April 20, 2007|By Russ Keen, American News Writer

It won't take a landslide victory on April 24 for Northern Beef Packers to set up shop near Aberdeen, the head of the company said Friday. He and his opponents engaged in a question-and-answer session sponsored by the Exchange Club at the Aberdeen Senior Citizen Center on Friday afternoon. One of the 25 or so people attending asked just how big of a ballot-box win it would take for Northern Beef to build its $40 million-plus beef processing plant south of town. “Fifty-one percent,” Hellwig said. Earlier this spring, a Northern Beef spokesman said a narrow victory was no guarantee the plant would be built near Aberdeen because being opposed by almost half of voters could cause long-term problems. Brown County voters decide April 24 whether to grant Northern Beef tax increment financing. Wondering about water: Most questions raised Friday had little to do with the TIF election. For example, some attendees wanted to know if Aberdeen had enough water to supply the plant. “We don't know how much water is available,” said Aberdeen attorney David Fransen, spokesman for those who oppose granting the TIF. He referred to a study the city is having done to find out just exactly how much water the city can access for the long term. Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen said the unknowns about the adequacy of Aberdeen's water supply don't really matter in relation to Northern Beef. If the city gets into a situation where its water supply gets tight, Northern Beef could get its water from WEB Water Development Association, Levsen said. The plant site is near a WEB pipeline of treated Missouri River water. Northern Beef would pay 50 cents more per 1,000 gallons for city water than it would for WEB water, Levsen said. So, an audience member asked, why not buy the cheaper water from WEB right away instead of the city? Because the city has first rights to sell water to the plant, Levsen said. The plant site is outside city limits, but is expected to be annexed into the city if the plant is built. Water revenue from Northern Beef would help keep water rates down for everyone in the city, the mayor said. Also on the water front, Fransen said he was concerned that there are no state or federal regulations controlling how much of the pollutant phosphorus can be released from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. “And beef plants discharge huge amounts of phosphorus,” Fransen said. Hellwig countered by saying the plant will have its own treatment facility that will pretreat its wastewater before it flows into the city's treatment plant immediately east of the Northern Beef site. The plant's water treatment process will comply with all laws, he said. Both sides urged people to vote. “I would like to see one of the largest turnouts ever,” Fransen said. “I would like to see a good representation of Brown County.” The county commission approved a TIF for Northern Beef earlier this year on a 4-1 vote. But the commission's action was referred to a public vote. “Referral was a good thing,” Sanderson said. “It brought our community together more than any other issue has.”